SHORT COMMUNICATION Genetic identification of mammalian meal source in dung beetle gut contents Andr es G omez a and Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis b a ICF International, Washington, DC, USA; b Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA ABSTRACT Coprophagous dung beetles are a numerically and functionally important group. Their obligatory use of mammalian dung has broad ecological implications, including providing economically and epidemiologi- cally relevant ecosystem services. Beetle-mammal ecological networks are critically important in deter- mining the resilience of dung beetle communities and the supply of beetle-mediated ecosystem functions. However, our understanding of dung beetle trophic networks remains incomplete. Here we report on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of DNA-based analyses in identifying the source of dung beetle meals. Using beetles collected from dung piles of known provenance, we hypothesized that molecular analysis of gut content would correctly identify the mammal host, and that beetle body size would increase the odds of successful detection of mammalian DNA. We analyzed 90 specimens belonging to six beetle species. Most samples yielded mtDNA sequences from the expected mammalian species, suggesting that these methods can be an efficient tool for the investigation of dung beetle diet. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 29 September 2015 Revised 12 February 2016 Accepted 13 February 2016 Published online 10 March 2016 KEYWORDS Coleoptera; ecosystem service; feces; forensic genetics; trophic networks Introduction Mapping the structure of ecological networks is a critical step in understanding ecosystem functions and their likely responses to disturbance. Insights into network structure and dynamics are essential for answering a broad suite of eco- logical and evolutionary questions, and for designing and implementing strategies to conserve biodiversity (Evans et al. 2013). Unsurprisingly, this is an area of active development, and novel empirical and theoretical research has greatly increased our understanding of ecosystem architecture (Bascompte 2010; Ulanowicz et al. 2014). Coprophagous dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) have obligatory associations with mammal dung. Adult dung beetles use mammal feces in reproduction, relocating dung balls in which they lay their eggs. Dung is also their main source of nutrition and dung beetles use spe- cialized mouth parts to process feces prior to ingestion (Holter 2000; Holter & Scholtz 2007). The consumption and relocation of dung has broad ecological implications. Dung beetles perform important ecosystem functions and provide economically and epidemiologically relevant ecosystem serv- ices through their contributions to nutrient cycling, seed dis- persal, soil aeration, and parasite and pest control (Nichols et al. 2008; Nichols & G omez 2014). Dung beetles appear to be particularly sensitive to ecosystem alteration, sharply declining in richness, abundance, and evenness following environmental disturbance (Nichols et al. 2007). These responses may be mediated by changes in the composition and availability of the dung supply through alterations in the abundance and composition of mammal communities (Nichols et al. 2009). Dung beetle resource use creates a network of linkages between beetles and mammals, and this ecological network also includes mammal parasite species with a fecal life stage. These beetle-parasite ecological linkages have potentially important epidemiological consequences (Nichols & G omez 2014), and are ultimately mediated by the beetles’ preferences for mammalian dung. Detailed knowledge of beetle feeding in nature is thus basal to our understanding of these eco- logical networks. In turn, understanding the beetle-mammal linkages is critically important in determining the resilience of dung beetle communities and the supply of beetle-mediated ecosystem functions. More eloquent treatments of dung bee- tle ecological functions and networks have been provided by Nichols et al. (2007, 2008, 2009). Despite of over a century of natural history research on dung beetles, their feeding biology is not well understood (Holter et al. 2002; Holter & Scholtz 2007). The ephemeral and patchy nature of dung suggests that strict dietary specializa- tion in dung beetles should be rare (Hanski & Cambefort 1991). Therefore, dung beetles are generally assumed to be polyphagic and to show only guild-level preferences for dung (Dormont et al. 2004). However, extreme dietary specialization is possible (Jacobs et al. 2008), and preferences can range from mostly indiscriminate to more specialized associations (Fincher et al. 1970; Tshikae et al. 2008). Further, some species appear to show strong geographical variation in dung prefer- ence and others have been observed in association with dung types previously assumed to be outside their preferred food sources (Cave 2005; Dormont et al. 2004). Recent studies have used molecular analyses to identify and quantify the strength of ecological interactions in trophic CONTACT Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, PhD koloko@amnh.org Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458, USA ß 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group MITOCHONDRIAL DNA PART A, 2017 VOL. 28, NO. 4, 612–615 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/24701394.2016.1155120